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Psalm 38 verse 1 says, O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure, for thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore. Now, no one likes to be chastened or rebuked. What is chastening? It's basically a punishment. For example, I chasten my children, and turn, if you would, to Hebrews chapter 12. We're going to look at some things about chastening in order to help us understand Psalm 38. Go to Hebrews 12. See, I chasten my children. I discipline my children out of love, not just to inflict pain on them, just for the sake of inflicting pain, but a chastening or chastisement is punishment or discipline or correction in order to help someone grow and do the right thing and to learn from their mistakes. Now, look at verse 11 of Hebrews 12. Now, no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous. But that's why David here is saying, O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. No one likes being chastened. Now, the first thing I want you to see is that the one who gets chastening is the Son. The Bible says that if you're a son, you will be chastened. Look at verse number 6. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement... I like how the Bible defines itself, too. It uses these synonymous words, chastening, chastisement, rebuke. He says that if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. So the Bible's clear that the one who's chastened is the Son. Those who are not chastened are not sons of God. And therefore, if you're chastened by God, it's showing you that, number one, you're a son of God, and number two, that God loves you. Because whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Now, if a person can just commit all kinds of awful, wicked sin and never be chastened by God, that person should ask themself, am I even saved? Because he said... And again, this is not a judgment to judge other people. He says, if ye then be without chastisement... He's talking to you. He's not saying to look at someone else necessarily. I mean, with some people, it can be obvious. You know, when you see them driving around in a Cadillac, in a fancy car, and they're wealthy, and the whole world loves them, Jesus tells us, hey, that's a false prophet. That's a false teacher. You know, we look at the Joel Osteen and the Billy Graham. We see them deny Christ and deny everything that's holy and go through no chastisement, because they're obviously not saved and they're preaching another gospel anyway. Further evidence that they're not saved. But he's not saying to look at everyone else in the church and look at everyone you know. It's more of a self-taste, as if you're without chastisement. Then are ye bastards and not sons. And so those of us who are saved have been chastened and chastised by God when we've done wrong. And it doesn't seem to be joyous at the time. But he says, nevertheless, afterward, if you look down at verse 11, Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless afterward it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. So the Bible says, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. And by the way, whom any father loveth, he chasteneth. You see, the Bible says, he that spareth his rod hated his son, but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. And betimes means early. And so the Bible says that if you love your children, you will chasten them and you will use the rod. Some have said, oh, the rod was not an instrument of striking the child. They're not saying to spank your children. The rod was to lovingly guide them and stroke them and lead them around. And they say it was this cane with a hook on the end and they grab the sheep and guide them and whatever. Look, the Bible says, thou shalt beat him with the rod. And he shall not die. That's what it says in the book of Proverbs. Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shall deliver his soul from hell. The Bible tells you to spank your children. Now when it says beat, it's not what we would think of as beat in 2010, but it's not exactly a slap on the fanny either, is it? You know, if it uses the word beat. Obviously it's talking about giving a spanking that's going to hurt the child, not injure the child, but it's going to hurt. I mean, when I got spanked as a child, it hurts. That's the whole point. You feel pain on your posterior in the area that God padded and designed to be disciplined. And when you feel that pain, it actually saves you from a whole lifetime of pain of living a life of foolishness and wickedness and sin. And so if you don't spank your children, you don't love your children. But that's not even really what the Bible says. It says if you don't spank your children, you hate your children. That's what it really says. And parents say, oh, I love my child too much to spank them. No, you love yourself too much to spank them. Because if you really love that child, you would do what's best for that child, not just what makes you feel good. That's just because you love yourself. You like to feel good. When you ought to be spanking the child and doing what's going to make that child grow up and live for God and be brought up in the fear of God. And today, we have parents who don't spank their children. Their children will turn out wrong. Period. There is no alternative to spanking. You say, Pastor Anderson, what if spanking becomes against the law? Spanking will never be against the law as long as the First Amendment exists. Because every law in America that's repugnant to the Constitution is null and void. And guess what? I have the right, according to the First Amendment of the Constitution, which is the highest law in the land, to freely exercise my religion. Isn't that what it says? It says Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, right? Or what is it? Abridging the free exercise thereof. The free exercise of my religion is guaranteed me by the Constitution. And so I will spank my child. You say, what if they tried to take your child away? I will spank my children no matter what anybody says to me. Period. Because that's what the Bible says to do. And we ought to obey God rather than men. And preachers won't even preach that anymore. That's why it probably will eventually be against some lower life form in America. They'll make some law in some room somewhere. And they'll probably make that law because preachers have quit preaching it anyway. I'll be the one to take a stand for it right now and say I believe in spanking. And I will spank my children because it's what God said to do and because I love my children. Period. He that spareth his rod, hateth his son. Unless you have a good reason to spare the rod. And so no, I will never cease to spank my children until they get old enough to where they don't need to be spanked anymore. And then I'll stop spanking them. And then I'll spank the next one on down the line. And so forth. And it's not because I enjoy spanking. It's because of the fact that I believe the Bible. And I have faith in God that if I obey Him my children will turn out right if I follow God's plan for raising my family. And so that's what I'm doing. But the Bible is clear here that chastening is for children, right? He says if you endure chastening, chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are you... If you do it without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are you bastards and not sons. So the bastard is without chastisement. The son is chastened and loved and brought up by his parent. With that in mind, let's go back to Psalm 38 because we need to get that in perspective if we're going to understand Psalm 38. So is chastening and chastisement in our life a good thing or a bad thing? It's really a good thing because he says, Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, nevertheless afterward it yielded the peaceful fruit of righteousness, and then there exercised their body. And so chastening is actually good for us. It's going to help us grow and be who we need to be as Christians. I thank God that my parents spanked me when I was growing up. You know, at the time I didn't like it, and I've actually said to my parents, Thank you for spanking me. And I'm very thankful that they obeyed the Bible in that area. It says in Psalm 38, Now this is a believer here that's speaking. This is somebody who's already saved. They're a Christian, but they've committed sin, and they're being disciplined by God for it. They're being chastened by God for it. Look at verse number 4. It says, Now before I get into that, let's skip down in the chapter to one of the most misused, abused verses in the Bible. It says in verse number 18, Now that's a great verse. When we do wrong, we shouldn't hide our sin as Adam. We should declare our iniquity. We should confess our sins to God, and look up to God and say, God, I'm sorry. I've done nothing so. I have no excuse. It's my fault. I did wrong. God, please help me to do better. You know, I'm sorry about it. I wish I hadn't done it. I'm going to do better, and so forth. That's great. But people will try to attach this verse to salvation. Now look, this is somebody who's already saved being chastened of God. And if he were not saved, he wouldn't be chastened by God. And so the Bible's clear. The word chastening is a child-rearing word that God chastens his sons. And so yes, we should declare our iniquity, be sorry for our sins, but do we have to be sorry for our sins in order to be saved? Does it say that in the Bible somewhere? No, and the thing is, people will take a verse like this, and they'll just take it out of context and just put it all by itself and just say, see, the Bible says I'll declare my iniquity. I'll be sorry for my sin. How many gospel tracts have I seen that use this verse? I mean, they'll use this verse in a gospel tract and say, see, you've got to be sorry for your sins, and so forth. Now, I've seen a tract that said the Romans Road, and there are good tracts that are called the Romans Road, too. But I saw this particular tract that was put out by some kind of a Pentecostal denomination, and it was called the Romans Road. And it looked like the Romans Road that we're familiar with, you know, the Romans 310, Romans 323, Romans 512, Romans 5-8, Romans 10-9, Romans 10-13, the typical Romans Road. But then at the end, it had Romans 12. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And he said, see right there, you know, you've got to give your life over to Christ. You can't be conformed to this world. You've got to present your body a living... Wait a minute. He said, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. He's talking to those that are saved. He's commanding us to do something but did he say, do this in order to be saved? No. Now the verses that we ought to be using for salvation are verses that talk about being saved. Amen. Like, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Or verses like, whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. That's the kind of verse we should be using. We can't just take any command in the Bible and say, see, this is part of being saved. Just because he commands us to be sorry, just because he commands us to declare our iniquity, just because he commands us to present our bodies a living sacrifice, just because he commands us to go to church. I mean, I could show you a verse that commands you to go to church. But does that mean you have to go to church to be saved? No. I could show you all manner of verses condemning all kinds of sins and telling you to do all kinds of things. And so beware, when you see somebody pull out a verse like this, you've got to say, wait a minute, where in verse 18 does it say anything about getting saved? Do you see anything about heaven or hell or eternal life or damnation in hell? Or do you see anything about getting saved? Or do you see anything like that? Anywhere in this whole chapter? I see a Christian who's gotten into sin. He feels bad about it. He's pouring his heart out to God saying, I'm sorry. Now go back to verse 4 with that in mind. He says this, For mine iniquities are gone over my head as a heavy burden. And this is the key right here. They are too heavy for me. You see, people think that they can handle sin. He's saying, look, my sins are too heavy for me. And we think we can play around with sin and it's going to be okay. I can handle it. I can fool around with this. And it starts out when you just put your toe in the water saying you just kind of test it out and see what it's like. You know, nobody just starts out and just goes straight from never touching alcohol to just becoming a junkie and just becoming a drug addict. You don't just start with cocaine. You start with what? What do you start with? Alcohol. You start with drinking. You start with drinking and then you go to the gateway drug. You know, marijuana. And then you move on to other drugs because it always starts small. But the problem is you think that you can handle sin and you can't. He said, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. You think that you can watch movies that just have a little bit of indecence of it. You know, you can keep a pure mind. You can push it out of your mind, but you can't. You know, porno starts out with that swimsuit edition, doesn't it? You know, it starts out with things of that nature. It starts out with the bikinis. You know, it starts out with something that the world considers benign. I mean, the world doesn't even try to hide that. I mean, they just think that that's acceptable. I mean, husbands think that that's acceptable. They probably don't even hide it from their wife today in 2010 in America. That swimsuit edition or that bikini magazine. They don't even hide it. They think it's acceptable. But you know what? I'm sure that's got to hurt their wife's feelings to know that their husband is lusting after and coveting another woman instead of having all of his love for her. Now look, I want all of my wife's love and affection to be directed at me. And I know that she wants all of my love and affection to be directed at her. That's what marriage is supposed to be. That's what a marriage is. It's a bond between two people. It's keep me only unto her so long as we both shall live. It's not me, well, I'm married to her, but I'm going to lust after and think about everybody else and just kind of play. I'm not going to commit some bad sin like adultery, but I'm just going to go ahead and just look at these bikinis. So wait a minute, it's too heavy for you. You can't handle it. You won't be able to handle the temptation because you'll want more. You'll go from that. And by the way, it's a lot easier to transition from the little sin to the big sin than the no sin to the little sin. You know, the big step is going from not drinking at all to start drinking. Once you're drinking, why not smoke a marijuana cigarette? You know what I mean? Once you're looking at the bikini anyway, why not look at something a little more? I mean, you're already in sin. And that's what the devil's going to tell you, that kind of stuff. And it's going to get too heavy for you, and you're going to become addicted to alcohol. You're going to become addicted to worldly and fleshly images. You're going to be addicted to drugs. You're going to be addicted to cigarettes. You're going to be addicted to television and movies and whatever. Hey, don't let it suck you in. It's too hard for you. It's too heavy for you. You cannot handle playing around with sin. That's why the Bible says, Flee fornication. Think about the word flee. It's a word that's used a lot in the Bible in battle. When you're up against an enemy that you cannot defeat, you flee, right? What's the opposite of flee? You know, standing your ground, fighting the battle. God's saying, look, you don't want to fight this battle. You don't want to be put in this position. Just get out of there. Just flee, like Joseph did, you remember? When Potiphar's wife was putting the moves on him, what did he do? He ran screaming in the other direction. He never should have been in that position in the first place. But who knows? I mean, he was in bondage. He was in slavery. He didn't necessarily want to be there. I don't know if he put himself in that position or not, where he's alone with her in the house and everything like that. We don't really know. Maybe he had to do it because he's enslaved. But the bottom line is, he didn't have to commit fornication. He did not have to commit adultery. He said, I'm not going to sin against God. And he ran screaming in the other direction. That's what we ought to do. And I'm telling you, it's easier to be cured if you stay really far away from fornication than if this is the line of fornication. If you're hanging around here all the time, it's going to be a lot harder for you to resist that temptation when you're just right here. And it's too heavy for you. It's too strong of a pole in your life. That's why you just want to get as far away from it as you can, and you'll be better off. You see, people think that feeding the appetites of the flesh will somehow satisfy those appetites. But hold on a second. Isn't food a pretty strong fleshly appetite in our lives? I mean, it's a pretty strong pole, isn't it? I mean, you eat every day. I mean, it's rare that anybody goes a complete day without food willingly. And if they do, it's probably just an act of the will. They're fasting or something of that nature. But hold on a minute. When you eat food and gratify that food appetite, doesn't it just make you want to do it again about six hours later? Right? Or do you just say, well, I already ate on that Thursday. I'm good. And in fact, I'm just going to eat a ton on Thursday, and that should be good for the rest of the week. No. Eating food makes you just desire more food. Now, it does satisfy right then and there, doesn't it? I mean, yeah, you're satisfied at the time. But you know what? The next day, you're just even hungrier. Now, you know when you eat a big breakfast sometimes, it makes you hungrier throughout the whole day sometimes, it seems like. Who's experienced that? You know, because it gets the metabolism going, doesn't it? Well, what happens is when you start indulging the flesh, it gets that metabolism going. You know, and you just want more. You want more. See, I don't have an appetite for drugs because I don't take drugs. But people who take drugs, they develop that appetite. And people develop an appetite for whatever the sin may be, and it's just getting a stronger and stronger pull. Just admit it like David did. Just say, look, it's too heavy for me. My sins are gone over my head. And when you're in sin, you're in over your head. Realize it. And so don't play around and fool around with sin. You see, sometimes we just want to flirt around with sin. You know, we don't want to go out and live a lascivious, licentious lifestyle. Say that five times fast. But we do want to watch a TV show about it and enjoy it vicariously through someone else and think about it and imagine it. But the Bible says the thought of foolishness is sin. The Bible says, Whosoever looketh on a woman that lusts after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. The Bible says in Proverbs, Lust not after her beauty in thine heart. Speaking of the strange woman. And so we need to stop playing around with sin and just try to stay as clean and pure and godly. There's a certain inertia, is what I'm trying to say, when it comes to sin. People... Can somebody stand up for me and tell me what... Give me inertia, the scientific definition of inertia. Somebody who knows science. Tell me what it is. The object is in motion. It would stay in motion unless another force is active. Exactly. It has a tendency to stay in motion unless acted upon by another force, right? And what's the second part of the law of inertia? Objects that are at rest have a tendency to stay at rest unless they're acted upon by a different force, right? That's the way it is with sin. People who are living a clean life have a certain inertia, okay? It's easier to stay living clean when you're already clean than to just go from being a total whore-monger drug addict and then tomorrow you're just going clean. Who do you think is going to be cleaner? Who do you think is going to have an easier time staying clean? The person who's already been clean or the person who just cleaned up five minutes ago? Think about it. And you see, people who develop habits of sin are developing habits for the rest of their life that they're going to struggle. Now, they can still win the battle, but it's going to be an uphill battle. And so you want to keep that momentum of doing what's right. You see, when you quit church for a little while or you start being hit and miss to church, some people just don't ever get back in the habit of church. But when you're just in a rhythm of just Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, it's a lot easier to just keep up that rhythm. As soon as you get out of that rhythm, it's hard to get back into that pattern. Same thing with soul winning. You know, you quit soul winning for a few weeks, and then you've got to get back into that rhythm, back into that rhythm. It's easier just to stay in just a continuous pattern where you have the momentum, you have the inertia working for you instead of against you. That's the way it is in the Christian life. It's easier to just keep on doing what's right, keep it clean, keep it pure, than to start having all these other forces acting on you. It's going to be hard to get back in the place where you once were. But let's move on to the chapter. He says, My wounds stink, in verse 5, and are corrupt because of my foolishness. This is where sin takes you. Sin stinks. You know, think about the smells associated with sin. You know, think of the smell of the barroom, restroom. You know, think, ugh. You know, whatever. But think about the smell. And you know, I know what sin smells like. Boy, I spent years knocking doors in the ghettos of South Chicago. And let's face it, they are neighborhoods that are filled and inundated with sin. I mean, everywhere you look, it's children born out of wedlock. It's homosexuality. It's gang lifestyles. It's murder. It's drunkenness. I mean, people are drunk first thing in the morning. It's drugs. It's whoredom. I mean, it's everything ungodly. And that place stank. I mean, in a way, I kind of got used to it after a while. But then I'd bring somebody like my wife and bring her into those apartments, and she would just be overpowered by the stench of filth in those places. I mean, it smelled bad. Visitors would come visit me out of town. We'd go soul-winding together. And then I'd visit some of our church members that were there that were regular attenders. We'd go in their house, and it was unbelievable, the stench. You know, I remember my sister needed to use the restroom, and I said, oh, we'll stop over at so-and-so's house. You can use their restroom. Because I said there's no clean public restroom within probably ten miles in any direction, you know? And so we basically pulled into this house of someone that we knew that was a churchgoer that came with them. We knocked on that door. And I mean, the stench, because there was so much sin in that house, just stank. It smelled bad. There's nothing glamorous and glorious about sin. It's ugly, it's dirty, it's filthy, it stinks. Go find the woman who's been the biggest whore, and don't get offended by that word. That is a Bible word. Go find the woman that's been the biggest whore. And you're going to find a woman that stinks. You're going to find a woman that is dirty, that is foul, that is disgusting. That's what you'll find. It's not Julia Roberts on Pretty Woman. You know, this lying propaganda film from the 80s that teaches you that sin is cool and glamorous and look, you know, it's beautiful. No, that's not reality, my friend. The Bible will bring you home to reality. Look what it says down in the... Find the place I was looking for. It says in verse 7, For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease, and there's no soundness in my flesh. I mean, look, stinking, wounds, corruption, disease, filth. Is this the life that you want to live, young people? Is this what you want to grow up and be? Filthy, disgusting, vile? This is the road that sin takes you on. And so just stay away from it. Stay clear of it. Be clean. Now, let's keep reading. It says in verse number 6, I am troubled. I'm bowed down greatly. I go mourning all the day long. See, is sin going to bring you happiness? No. He said, I go mourning all the day long. There's no joy in sin. I mean, there are pleasures in sin for a season. It doesn't bring you any joy in your life. It just destroys your life. It just ruins your life. This is what sin does. It makes it to where you can't enjoy anything. You see, a hard-working, righteous, godly person, they enjoy everything. I mean, they enjoy breakfast. They enjoy lunch. They enjoy dinner. They enjoy driving. You know, they enjoy putting down the window. They enjoy looking at the flowers. They enjoy smelling the roses, going to the zoo. But you see, the people who just indulge the flesh, they can't enjoy anything. The rich and famous that are living in lifestyle that are living in a last-gen lifestyle, they can't enjoy it. They have all the life to buy anything. They don't even know what they want to do. They don't know what they want to eat. They can't find any food that they like. They can't find any places that they want to go. Because they've just dulled and numbed their senses to the point where they can't even enjoy just the basic joys of life, just the basic pleasures of life. They have to have all these strange drugs coursing through their veins, strange women passing before their eyes in order to get any pleasure out of life because their senses have been so dulled that they can't taste anything normal anymore. And so it doesn't bring joy. It just takes away the joy out of everything in your life. And then it leaves you with the guilt of sin, and then it leaves you with the wounds and the stink and the corruption and the disease associated with sin. The devil is a liar and a deceiver that tries to polish the apple of sin, and he'll make it seem like a tree that's desirable to eat of. And he'll make it look good, and he's a master of advertising, but children and young people be not deceived by the image that the devil puts forth every day through Madison Avenue. It's a big lie. It's a scam. It's a fraud. And whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. You're a fool if he sucks you in and gets you to think that it's fun to go to the club and it's fun to go to the bar and it's fun to go watch all the movies. I used to watch all the movies when I was a teenager, but you get to a point where you're just sick of them all. It just gets stupid when you're watching The Dukes of Hazzard Part 5. Now, the A-Team. I didn't see the A-Team. I didn't see the movie. I don't watch the stupid Hollywood movies. But I'm saying, I'm driving down the road, I see a sign for the A-Team. Oh, wow, what a shock. Another remake. Another show from the 70s and 80s, dusted off. There's nothing new under the sun. It's just the same tired old garbage. And to those who don't watch the movies, to children or teens or young people that are living a godly life, they think, oh, what's that movie going to have in store? But to the people who go to the movies over and over again every week, they're just like, man, I'm sick of the D-A-Team? The Dukes of Hazzard? You've got to be kidding. Batman? 27? You're just like, what? Because, look, it gets old. It's not what it's cracked up to be. It's tired and old and boring and sorry. The life that brings joys and pleasures forevermore is a life living for God. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. I wouldn't trade church and the Bible and soul-winning for anything in the world. I wouldn't trade the family life for the whoremonger life. I wouldn't do it. If I had the choice to just be a whoremonger or be the family man, I would choose to have a wife that loves me and is mine only and I would choose to have children who I get to see all the time because I live with them. That's the life that I want to live. And that's the life that you ought to live, young people. And don't be deceived by the devil's lies because it's all just a big lie. And you can either believe me and God and God's word telling you it's a lie or you can go find out it's a lie yourself and then come back and tell us about what a big lie it was and how you were so miserable and how you hit rock bottom and the end of your rope and that's when you finally figure it out when you're in the pig pen like the prodigal son eating slop and filth. That's when you figure out, hey, maybe I'd be better off doing the right thing. Maybe I'd be happier just in church and doing the right things and living for God. There's a restaurant that I saw or a bar or whatever it is in Ahwatukee that was called Rock Bottom Brewery. You know? I mean, at least they're being honest. I mean, that's where it's going to take you. I don't want to go to the bottom. I want to go to the top. I'm pressing on the upward way, new heights I'm gaining every day, still praying as I'm onward bound, Lord, plant my feet on higher ground. Not, well, I'm just about ready to hit rock bottom. You want to go have another drink with me? No, get away from me. That's what people will start, that's what your friends will start to say to you. No, get away from me, you're dirty. No, you don't have any money. No, you're not fun anymore. Just like the prodigal son's friends all forsook him whenever bad times came upon him. It says in verse number, well, let's get on that subject. Look at verse 11. My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore, and my kinsmen stand afar off. You see, when the stink comes in your life, when the problems come in your life, you'll find out who your friends really are, won't you? When people start to turn on you, when you need money, you know, when you need something, when you're in a bind, who's going to help you out? Your sinful drinking buddy friend? Your partying whoremonger friends? No. The true friends are going to be God's people that will pick you up. The good Samaritans of this world that will pick you up and help you. Only the phony preacher won't help you either. Remember those religious phonies in Luke 15 when the story of the good Samaritan? That's one of my favorite stories. I love that story. You know, the guy's walking down the road, and he gets jumped and beaten, and basically the Bible says he's just half dead, naked, lying in a ditch. And you remember these phony, these Jewish rabbi-type people, you know, first the Levite and then the priest? You know, but they weren't really serving God. Just like the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and all the religious order of Jesus ate, they didn't even believe on Christ. They didn't even believe in God's word. But some phony preacher walks by, sees him laying in the ditch and just walks on the other side of the road from him. And then you remember the Levite, the priest do the same thing. And then comes the Samaritan, which was basically the one who was hated because he was the half-breed. He was the idolatrous race of people where basically in the Old Testament, the northern kingdom had been taken captive by the Assyrians, and then the Assyrians had moved in and basically the ten tribes of Israel basically mixed and intermingled with the Assyrians, okay? And so basically they were a mixture of the children of Israel with the heathen, not just in their physical ethnicity, but also in their religion, also in their practice. I mean, they had a false religion mixed in, and they were also an ethnic half-breed. And so the Jews hated them. When really they ought to have been doing like Josiah did. I like what Josiah did, and I believe Jehoshaphat did the same thing, where they tried to reach out to that northern kingdom and said, look, we want you to come back to the fold and we want you to worship the God of the Bible. They tried to win their souls and get them saved. You remember that? And they tried to bring them down and say, hey, come celebrate the Passover with us. Come worship God with us. And many of them did come down, thank God, from those ten tribes. But in the day of Jesus Christ, they hated the Samaritans. They had no dealings with the Samaritans. They wanted nothing to do with them. And so for all this Samaritan knew, that guy in the ditch could have hated his guts. You know, if he would have just guessed if he were the typical Jew laying in that ditch, he probably would have hated his guts. But he just saw it as his fellow man. And so remember the good Samaritan steps in, helps him out, dresses his wounds, takes him to an inn, cleans him up, feeds him, pays for him, takes care of him. Hey, Jesus said, go and do thou likewise. You know what? The real friend is one of God's people. The righteous Christian is your real friend. That's who's going to be there for you. You know, and you quit the church, and you quit on God, and then you wonder why you get to the end of your life and you don't have any friends. You know, you don't have anybody that cares about you. But the people who stay in church, the people who serve God and do right, I guarantee you they'll always have friends. Because you see, when people call me for help at random from the phone book because they're just calling down the list, I don't give them any help. You know, because there's only so much of me to go around. There's only so much of my money to go around. There's only so much of this church's money to go around. When some random person calls us up for help, I say, go ask your church. Go ask your church. I say, where did you go to church on Sunday? Oh, I didn't go to church on Sunday. I say, well, that explains why nobody's helping you. That explains why your life's a mess. Click, see you later. I'm not going to sit there and help somebody who doesn't want to go to church, doesn't want to do the right thing. That person just wants free money, and they'll call me up and they'll say, you know, can I speak with the pastor if he or she is available? They don't even know who they're calling. You know what I mean? If he or she is available, I'd like to speak to the pastor. That's where I just hang up right there. No, she's not in right now. It's bothering me. You know? She said she doesn't want to be bothered. Click. Or I'll just say, well, what church are you trying to reach? Oh, oh, oh, oh, you know. It's just lazy people just trying to, you know, get a free lunch, free whatever, over the phone. They're calling you. Where'd they get the phone? Sell your phone and buy something to eat. And then pray for God to give you your daily bread tomorrow. But you know what? When I see somebody who's in need, I want to help them out, but you know who I see are the people who come to church. That's who I usually end up seeing. And it's not just me. It's everybody in the church will help you out when you're in trouble. Because these are your friends. These are your brothers and sisters in Christ that are there for you to help. I thank God that I know that if I had troubles, I have people who would help me out. You know what I mean? Because all of us could get into trouble, right? All of us could be injured or we could become ill or have all kinds of bad things happen. I thank God I have people that would help me out. I know that. Because I associate myself with God's people, that's why. You know, I wouldn't be high and dry. But go get all your worldly friends and see how big of a help they are when you need something. You know what I mean? And if we read the story in the book of Luke about the prodigal son, we read that all of his friends ran screaming in the other direction. Same thing right here in Psalm 38-11. My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore, and my kinsmen, even my relatives, stand afar up. Even they backed off from me. Even they don't want to help me. He says, They also that seek after my life lay snarish for me, and they that seek my heart speak mischievous things and imagine deceits all the day long. But I as a deaf man heard not, and I was as a dumb man that opened not his mouth. Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouths are no reproofs. For in thee, O Lord, do I hope, thou wilt hear, O Lord my God. Now it's great to have godly and righteous friends to pick you up when you fall, but at the end of the day, it's going to be the Lord who has to be our final hope because sometimes you get to a point where you're alone, and He's the only one that can help you. The Bible says, When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. And so finally we have to rely on God, but it says in verse 16, For I said, Hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me. When my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me. For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually before me, for I will declare mine iniquity. I will be sorry for my sin, but mine enemies are lively and they are strong, and they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied. They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries, because I follow the thing that good is. Forsake me not, O Lord, O my God, be not far from me. Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation." So, who are you going to turn to when you get into hard times? And maybe you even did wrong. Maybe you even committed sin. Because here's a guy in the Psalm here who's a righteous guy. Because if you look at the end of verse 20, he says, I follow the thing that good is. He's a good guy. He's a righteous guy. But what did he do? He fell into sin. He started playing around with it, and he got sucked in by it. Pretty soon he said, I'm in over my head. He said, my sin's too heavy for me. And basically, first he's trying to call out to his friends. His wicked friends aren't going to give him any help. And even if he's got some righteous friends, finally at the end of the day, he has to just cry out to God and say, God, you're all I've got. Here, help me. But you know what? If you want God to help you, you've got to acknowledge your sin. You've got to admit that you did wrong. And that's part of the reason why most people that need the help, and they need God's help, and they need their fellow Christians' help, don't get the help. Because they're ashamed to admit that they've done wrong. The Bible says, Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another that you may be healed. But you see, many people will flee church because they committed sin. You know what I mean? Look, people will commit sin. People that are even godly people can do wrong and commit sin. And the tendency many times is to run away from God and to run away from church. Now, look, maybe this isn't something that's helping you right now, this sermon. But keep this sermon in mind, because someday you may need this sermon. And I hope that this never happens, but maybe someday someone who's listening to me preach right now in this room, someday may commit some awful sin. And the tendency is going to be to try to run away from God and hide and to try to run away from God's people. You won't want to face church. You know, you don't want to face anybody. And you know what? That's just going to make it even worse. That's just going to make everything get worse. You know, you're just going to go south from there when you get out of church and you stop serving God. You know, you've got to go to God with an attitude that just says, look, I'll declare my iniquity. I'll be sorry for my sin. You know, you've just got to say, look, I did wrong. I'm not going to lie about it. I'm not going to hide it. I'm sorry, but you know what? Now I want to live for God. Now I want to do what's right. Somebody help me. You know what? I'll be there to help you. Other people will be there to help. You know, there's so many people who've done wrong and quit the church or whatever, and then they're ashamed to come back. You know, come back. You know, it's sad. And they think that they'd be treated poorly when in reality, you know, people who've done wrong, we would still want them to come back. You know what I mean? And people who've quit the church or whatever, for whatever reason, you know, you think about Demas who forsook Paul and really even John Mark, remember, who left Paul and Barnabas in their journey. He quit on him. He couldn't take it. And he wimped out and so forth. But you know what? At least Paul said, hey, take Mark and bring him with you, for he's profitable to me for the ministry. You know, he said, you know, and at first, of course, there was the contention, you remember, between Paul and Barnabas. He said, man, we don't want that guy. He's a quitter or whatever. But you know what? At least eventually that guy lived for God. You know, and he was used to pen down a book of the Bible, the book of Mark. You know, people who've quit the church because they wimped out like a John Mark or whatever, you know, maybe when persecution comes, they get scared and quit or whatever. You know, hey, if they come back, we welcome them with open arms. But you know what? Our mentality as human beings is we don't think that way. We just think, oh, I could never go back there again. You know, oh, I never want to go back to that church. I'm embarrassed to come back. You know, all that is is just pride anyway. That's right. You know, and so again, I'm preaching to the people that are here, of course. So this doesn't apply to anybody that's here. But you know, someday it may apply to you. Someday you may do something. You may make some decision, or maybe you just get a little backslidden and you get out of church for whatever reason. Don't ever be afraid to come back. You know, just admit it, you know. You know, and we're not going to make you get up and tell everybody, you know. But I'm just saying, you know, David's advocate that said, hey, I'll declare my iniquity. I'll be sorry for my sin. You know, just declare it, be sorry for it, and just get back in the fight. You know, a righteous man falleth seven times and riseth up again. You know, so don't just, don't let that wound that you receive, that stinking wound when you fall into sin, don't let it be a fatality. You know, get to the people that are going to help you. Get to God to get the help, and then get to the house of God to get the preaching and the encouragement and the strengthening that you need to get up and fight again. And so don't ever think, you know, I can't go back, I'm just going to, you know. And maybe if I just don't read the Bible, don't go to church, and just don't think, I won't feel as guilty. No, you know what will stop the guilt in your life? Just admitting that you did wrong. People who struggle with guilt are people who will not admit that they did anything wrong. Who try to justify, well, it wasn't really my fault, and here's why I did it. The people who just say, look, I did it, I'm sorry, I'll admit it, I'm not trying to hide it. Those are the people who just move on in their life, and don't you know, forget about it. Forget those things which are behind. I've done bad things in my life, but you know what? I just confessed it, forsook it, and I just want to move on today. I don't want to drag it around with me the rest of my life. Thank God for the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all sin. You know what, I have to carry it around. And so whatever your past is, just forget it. But first, be sorry for it, confess it, mourn over it, forsake it, and then just say, you know what, let's move on. I'm going to move forward. Let's bow our heads in that word of prayer. Father, I just pray that you'd please just help those that are here, dear God, not to go into sin, not to be deceived, not to even get that stinking wound in the first place. Help us not to be enamored and drawn in by the world's advertising and the devil's advertising, which really are one and the same. Help us to stay strong in the Lord and the power of your might. But Father, if anybody here does get into sin, I pray that they get back up and get in the fight just like David did, just declare their iniquity, be sorry for their sin, and get back to God's house and do the right thing. Please, please, Father, help us all to flee fornication, to stay away from the sin and the cares of this life. And we love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.